Bristle holder for brushes



Sept. 19, 1944. MA R 2,358,464

BRISTLE HOLDER FOR BRUSHES Filed Oct. 8, 1942 I INVENTOR C I JOSEPH W-MAYE/L 25 7 k 24 BY 14 TTOR/VE Y Patented Sept. 19, 1944 BRISKTLE HOLDERFOR BRUSHES Joseph W. Mayer, Troy, N. Y., assignor to Hughes-AutografBrush Company, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New'York vApplication October 8, 1942, Serial No. 461,317

1 Claim.

This invention relates to bristle holders for brushes and has for itsobject to provide a bristle holder free of the disadvantageous featuresof those heretofore proposed.

Heretofore, such bristle holders were made of metal which was subject torust and discoloration, and as a result brushes which still had areasonably useful life were discarded.

This invention consists in the improvement in the art of bristlebrushes, in which the bristle holder or slug is made of plastic materialwhich may be either of thesame material and color as that of the handleor made from a difierent type of plastic, and in which the plastic slugis somewhat larger than the diameter of the hole into which the slug isto be inserted, so that the slug firmly presses itself against theinside of the hole, creating a firm grip with sufficient pressure due tothe inherent resiliency of the slug, to anchor the tuft of lbristleWithin the said hole.

The invention will be further described hereinafter, embodiments thereofwill be shown in the drawing, and the invention will be finally setforth in the claim.

In th accompanying drawing,

Fig. l is a front view, partly in section taken on line I-l of Figure 3,of a part of a brush;

Fig. 2' is a sectional view of the same, taken on line 22 of Figure 3;

Fig. 3 is a plan view;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing a diameter of the bore for thetuft, and the larger diameter plastic tult holder or slug, the arrowshowing the direction of entrance movement of the slug in respect to thebore;

Fig. 5 is a front View partly in section of an alternate embodiment ofthe invention, taken along line 5-5 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 6 is a partial section taken on line 66 of Fig. 7; 1

Fig. 7 is a plan View, and

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view showing the larger diameter slug beingmoved into the smaller diameter bore of the brush. 7

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe various views.

Referring to the drawing, and more particularly to Figure 4, thedot-dash line outline of the slug ID has a diameter about /1000 of aninch larger than the diameter of the bore II of the brush l2. The arrowl3 indicates the direction of movement of the slug as it enters thebore.

As is known, a number of bristles 9 are gathered and at their medianpoint are enclosed by a slug, to form a tuft. The bristle is cut to morethan double the length that is needed for pro jection from the brush,and the :bristle is then folded around the slug as it enters the bore ofthe brush, and is then held therein by the slug. The slug I0 of plasticmaterial when inserted in the bore H in the manner described due to itsgreater width than the diameter l2 of the bore, shapes itself into theform shown in Fig. 3, and due to its inherent resiliency or'bow forcehas its ends pressed against the opposite walls of the bore of the brush[3. It will be noted that there is no groove along the walls of thebore, and in view thereof the slug can take any radial position. Theplastic material used for the slug does not discolor and so there is nopossibility of any discoloration or corrosion, and the brush will keepits appearance while in use for a long period of time. The plasticmaterial can be of the same color as that of the handle, so that itbecomes invisible to the eye, and the brush so made creates a cleanappearance. The plastic material slug does not cut or injure thebristles, as the slug has sufiicient resiliency and softness to preventsuch a contingency. 1

Instead of using a flat shaped slug, a triangular shaped slug such asshown in Figures 5 to 8 may be used. In this case, the two free ends l8and IQ of the slug 20, are slightly spaced from each other as shown bythe space 2 I. The width 22 of the slug 20 is larger than the diameter23 of the :bore 24 of the brush 25 as shown in Fig. 8, here again byabout. /1000 of an inch. The

arrow 26 shows the direction of the applied pressure. When the slug 20has been inserted into the bore 24 as shown in Fig.5, a securedanchorage is obtained. Due to the spacing at the free ends of thetriangular slug, the slug itself does not bend, as the fiat slug ofFigure 3, but in such cases where the spacing is not used or whereinsufiicient to prevent lbending, then a slight bending takes place.

The prior art is largely represented by two types of metal slugs, one, ametal piece is used which cuts a slot into the sides of the bore of thebrush handle, embedding itself into the material of the brush handle;and the other a metal member which after insertion is swaged. Thedisadvantage of the former is that the slot acts as a dirt catcher, intowhich toothpaste and other sediments are accumulated which cannot bereadily destroyed. Also, whether made of brass, nickel or othernon-ferrous metal, the metal becomes discolored and makes the brushunsightly and in many cases, the brush is discarded before its usefullife has terminated. The disadvantages of the second type of metal slugwhich has been forced into the walls of the bore is that this extrapressure often cuts the bristles in two or injures them at the bottom ofthe bore.

Among the advantages of the improved slug is that no groove is cut intothe bore; there is no possibility of any discoloration or-corrosion, theplastic material slug is invisible, the bristles are not cut, theplastic material acting as a cushion, and if the slug is made of thesame color as the brush, the appearance of the brush is improved.

A slug made of tampico, rattan or other types of fibre, which can beused in round form, has many of the advantages of the plastic material,when such slugs are constructed and used in the manner described in theforegoing.

By the word brushes in the foregoing de- 7 scription, any formof brush,as tooth, hair, hand, mascara and other typesof brushes is intended, inwhich bristles are inserted and held by a slug.

It will have been noted that the improvement consists in making the slugof a material which has an inherent resiliency or bow action whenslightly bent, or pressed out of itsinitial or normal shape, and'hasalso a yieldability against applied pressure along its exterior toenable it to give gently in respect to the bristle tuft. The result isthat this slug firmly presses itself against the inside of the hole,creating a firm grip with sufiicient pressure to anchor itself to thebore and securely hold the tuft of bristle within the bor of the brush,and also preventing injury to the bristles.

In the embodiments, the slug is substantially flat or in a plane and isexpansible to attain the locking action with the bore, the transverseconfiguration being either round or having rounded edges so as to avoidtearing the bristles.

I have described the invention in connection with the embodiment shown,but it is clear that changes maybe made therein without departing fromthe spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claim.

.I claim:

The combination of a brush handle having hannunrestricted bore of thesame diameter throughout its depth and a slug holding looped bristles atthe loop, said slug being of wire bent to equilateral triangular formwith the corners uniformly rounded and with its base portion having alength slightly larger than the diameter of the bore to enable the baseportion to be inserted in the bore diametrically thereof, with thecorner-opposed to the base portion entering the bore before thebaseportion, and having a cut out spacing the 1egs at their free ends inabutting relationship, the curved corners of the base portion adaptedwhen inserted into the bore to press

